Instructional Coaching: Part 2

In this 2018 article, Howard Pitler, Ed.D., sets out the steps of an instructional coaching cycle, from goal setting and an observation planning meeting through a reflective meeting and follow-up visits. The section after the article adds what research says about how much coaching can change teaching, where its limits lie, and how a district can keep a cycle consistent.

A Model to Build Instructional Coaching Coherence Editor’s Note: This is Part Two of a Two-Part Series

by Howard Pitler, Ed.D.

The coaching cycle

To be most effective, coaching should be undertaken as a long-term process. A commonly used duration for a coaching cycle is one grading period. During each coaching cycle, the coach and coachee should begin by agreeing on a specific goal or goals to be accomplished. There should be a clear connection between the agreed-upon goal(s) and the school improvement plan and district strategic plan. Figure 2 is an example of a Coachee/Coach Goal Planning Template:

The initial planning process should identify not only the agreed-upon teacher learning goal for the coaching cycle but how to progress to the goal will be monitored. It is suggested that the coach and coachee work together to develop a rubric for the various components of the goal

Observation Planning Meeting

• The coach meets with the coachee to discuss the lesson to be observed.
• What is the learning intention?
• What activities will support the learning intention?
  • differentiation to meet students need
  • technology to enhance learning
  • anticipated concept struggles
  • informal/formal assessments of learning
• Teacher ‘stretch goal.”

Observation

The coach observes the lesson (or views a teacher-created video of the lesson) and takes notes based on the planning meeting.

Planning for the Reflective Meeting

Reflective Meeting

• Share data
• Ask the teacher to reflect on the section focus of the lesson – using the data gathered from the tool
• Ask reflective questions
• Repeat and verify what you heard
• Set a goal that focuses on the change
• Offer a strategy to support the change
• Schedule the follow-up action
• Reflective Meeting Action Plan

Reflective Meeting Plan

• If the teacher understands the goal, create an action plan with him/her that includes:
  • Action dates
  • Who will be responsible for what
  • How will you know if your plan is effective?
• If a teacher does not understand, you offer:
  • To share research or professional article.
  • To model.
  • To co-teach.
  • To co-plan
  • To provide coverage while the teacher watches a master teacher

After the action plan is mutually developed between coach and coachee, a schedule of follow-up visits is developed to work the plan. An example of a follow-up schedules is below (Figure 3):

Summary

Everyone can benefit from having a coach. Professional sports teams have multiple coaches to help outstanding players reflect on their craft with the goal of becoming better. A good instructional coach can provide the same benefit for teachers. Just as a group of football coaches work under the head coach to move the team toward an agreed-upon goal, district instructional coaches will be most effective as a group if they have agreed-upon processes and procedures that move the district toward their goals. Coaching is specific to each individual coachee, but having a common set of procedures and protocols for all coaches will help the district move forward.

References

CUREE (2005) National Framework for Mentoring and Coaching, available here.

The instructional coaching cycle: what research says about making it work

The instructional coaching cycle Pitler outlines above has four recognizable stages: agreeing a goal, planning an observation, observing, and holding a reflective meeting that ends in an action plan and follow-up. This section looks at what research says about coaching in general, where it is strongest and where it weakens, and how a district can use that evidence when it sets up its own instructional coaching model.

What the strongest review found

The most complete study of coaching evidence is a 2018 meta-analysis in Review of Educational Research by Matthew Kraft, David Blazar and Dylan Hogan. They combined 60 studies that used causal designs, such as randomized trials, and found that coaching programs raised the quality of teachers’ instruction by 0.49 standard deviations and student achievement by 0.18 standard deviations on average. Because most of the studies looked at literacy coaching for pre-kindergarten and elementary teachers in the United States, the findings apply most directly to those settings. The review was published in 2018 (volume 88, pages 547-588), and this section rests on that single source, so it should be read alongside newer studies as they appear.

The authors add a caution that matters for any district. Larger programs tested in effectiveness trials had effects that were only a fraction of those in smaller trials, and the authors describe the difficulty of keeping quality when a program grows. They also examined how many hours teachers spent with a coach, and found no evidence that more hours produced larger effects, which they take to suggest that the quality and focus of coaching may matter more than the amount.

What this means for each stage of Pitler’s cycle

Pitler recommends a cycle of about one grading period, with a goal that links to the school improvement plan and a rubric developed by coach and teacher. The research finding about focus supports that choice, because a narrow goal with agreed evidence of progress is easier to coach well than a broad aim. The observation planning meeting does similar work: it ties the visit to a specific learning intention, so the coach collects data on what was agreed and not on everything that happened.

The reflective meeting is where much of the quality sits. Pitler’s list asks the coach to share data, ask the teacher to reflect, repeat what was heard and agree one change with a strategy and a date. Pitler’s plan also offers options when a teacher does not yet understand the goal: share research, model, co-teach, co-plan, or arrange for the teacher to watch a master teacher. Offering a menu of supports, and agreeing on one with the teacher, keeps the relationship collaborative.

The follow-up schedule closes the cycle. Without it, a good meeting is a single conversation, and Pitler’s example schedule in Figure 3 makes the next visit a fixed commitment.

Pitler also suggests that coach and teacher develop a rubric for the goal. A rubric helps in two ways: the teacher can see what progress looks like before the observation, and the reflective meeting can start from the rubric’s language and not from the coach’s impressions. Districts that use a shared rubric across coaches can also compare patterns between schools, which supports the district-level review described below.

Setting up a coaching model across a district

Pitler’s summary argues that coaches work best when a district has agreed processes and protocols that all coaches share, while each coaching relationship stays specific to the teacher. The meta-analysis result on scale gives that argument practical weight. A district planning to extend coaching from a pilot to every school can take these steps.

1. Write the shared protocol, including the goal template, the observation planning questions and the reflective meeting structure.
2. Train coaches in the protocol, and have them observe each other’s reflective meetings.
3. Limit each coach’s caseload so that follow-up visits can actually take place.
4. Collect evidence at two levels, the teacher’s progress against the rubric and the pattern across teachers.
5. Review the model after one year and revise the protocol, as the research suggests that results at scale are smaller than in a pilot.

Related reading on edCircuit

Readers building a coaching program may find Getting Started as an Instructional Coach, The Role of Coaching and Reflection and Effective Professional Development in Schools: What Works? useful companions to this article.

For more, see edCircuit’s guide to professional development for teachers.

Further Reading

1. Edutopia – Coaching the Veteran Teacher
2. ASCD – The Many Roles of an Instructional Coach
3. EL Education – Coaching for Change: Effective Instructional Coaching

Related reading

• Getting Started as an Instructional Coach
• The Role of Coaching and Reflection
• Effective Professional Development in Schools: What Works?

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